About stings, sure they have pain involved - you need to know your limit of stings too, it's common to build tolerence after enough stings, but much of it is doing your best to NOT disrupt the hive more than necessary and to dress with confidence.

As your friend does, many of us are in shorts and a teeshirt (I don't do flip-flops) but I don't know how good an idea that is anyway.

I did two full seasons of beesting therapy on my neck which got hurt in a very bad fall: I grabbed workers on their way out of the hive using tweasers by their head (quick and painless) and touched the abdomin on my neck, the sting reflex gets you stung every time that way. I was between 30 to 40 bees at a time, but my point is, that when you sting yourself on each side of the neck, all the stings in the middle make very little pain increase difference. Honestly, 40 felt no worse that 2 - of course THAT is all in one area, you don't want to spead that around cause it sure would ouch a lot, and all the many pressure points and tender spots are a real bugger, but being JUST ANOTHER BEE in your bee yard is a good way to think of being a hobbyist.

The bees have their jobs to and you have yours, confidence is a magical force that really carries over similar to how to handle an occurance with a strange dog. If you are not confident or scared, the bees will know it - and I always like to say, make sure that you are setup for whatever it is you are going to do with your hive, a good example is to have a place to place hive boxes down BEFORE you lift them up - simple things make a huge difference. Your prep time makes any thing you do with the bees better for both of you.

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Cockatoo. Welcome to our forum, so nice that you have found us. So nice too that you are taking up with the bees, it is such an interesting and great thing to do, you will love your bees. It is so interesting, as a matter of fact, that one you begin, you will have a hard time to think of anything else, smiling, you will be held under the spell of that honeybee. Stick around, this will be a place where you can tell your stories, tales and experiences, meet new friends. AND...have that most wonderful and awesome day, life, health. Cindi

Logged

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

I make a great dumpling myself - both steamed and pot sticker types. Pork and water chestnuts, dark soy and sesame oil - need to write it out and post it. Kinda basic recipe, but the trick is in wrapping for fried ones, I do a mean mini hotpocket wrap that I've cut up, added to cream cheese and stuff in thinly pounded chicken - really neat combo that I do every Christmas party at work.

About spammers and such, we are lucky here - the mods and software do a great job of handling such issues pretty quick. And about learning what you need to about beekeeping, I think our group has that covered really well :)

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.